Thursday, June 6, 2013

Telling Zim story through literature

from

Daily
News. Sunday May 19, 2013

BULAWAYO‑BASED co‑director
of amaBooks Publishers Brian Jones believes they have made a contribution to
Zimbabwe's literature industry for the past decade despite a decade of economic
hardships in the country.

AmaBooks is one of the few
publishing houses in the country that have given space to both upcoming and
established writers and the chance to expose their talents.

BJ: AmaBooks Publishers is
a Bulawayo‑based book publishing company run by myself and Jane Morris. I am an
astrophysicist and presently a Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at the
National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo. Jane's background is
in literature, social work and training. She is the editor of AmaBooks.

Brian Jones and Jane Morris

JM: How did you start this
project?

BJ: AmaBooks started in
2000, by accident. Jane was involved with training volunteers for the charity
Childline in Bulawayo, and the publication of a book of poetry was suggested as
a way of raising funds.

The award‑winning Bulawayo
poet John Eppel offered a selection of his work, and his Selected Poems. 1965‑1995
was published, with all proceeds going to Childline. It sold well, and so ‘amaBooks
was born.

JM: How many books have ‘amaBooks
published to date?

BJ: Since then we have
published 26 books including novels and collections of short stories, which
feature a total of 123 writers.

JM: How do you rate your
organisation?

BJ: We have done well despite
the economic challenges. Some of he books have won awards, including National
Arts Merit Awards and Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association awards.

Some have had recognition
on a wider scale ‑ Christopher Mlalazi’s short story collection ‘Dancing with
Life’ and Sandisile Tshuma's story ‘Arrested Development’ winning honourable
mentions in The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa and the Thomas Pringle
Awards respectively and ‘Long Time Coming. Short Writings from Zimbabwe’ being
selected by the ‘New Internationalist’ as one of their best two books from
across the world in 2009.

JM, What are your
challenges?

BJ: The reality is there
is a small book buying public and over the years the book industry, like any
other industry, suffered due to the poor performance of the economy.

People often do not read
for pleasure but towards success in their academic studies or for professional
purposes.

JM: So what can you say is
the major objective of this project?

BJ: One of our aims was to
give a voice to Zimbabwe writers who had previously been unpublished,
publishing them alongside more established authors. We achieved this through
the Short Writings series, of which five have been published to date, the first
being Short Writings from Bulawayo and the most recent,Where to Now? Short
Stories from Zimbabwe.

JM: What's your take on
Zimbabwean authors?

BJ: There are many
excellent Zimbabwe writers out there, each with wonderful stories to tell. As
‘amaBooks, we wanted these stories to be available to people across Zimbabwe,
and across the rest of the world.

JM: What are you doing in
terms of uplifting the book industry?

BJ: We have recently entered into co-publishing
and rights agreements with several publishers in other countries.

We recently entered into an agreement with World
Reader, so that many of our titles and some individual stories from those
titles, are available digitally, to be read on e-readers and cell-phones, to
children and their families across Africa.

We are also in discussions with publishers in
South Africa and the United Kingdom about the co-publication of two further
novels and a poetry collection.

Most AmaBooks publications are available outside
of Africa through the African Books Collective on a print-on-demand basis and
as e-books.

In order to reach a wider readership, we have
participated in the Jozi, Cape Town, London and Frankfurt Book Fairs to promote
the books.

JM: Any notable progress from your products?

BJ: Bryony Rheam's debut novel, ‘This September
Sun’, which won Best First Book at the Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association
awards and is a set book for Zimsec 'A’ level Literature in English, and the
collection ‘Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe’ have been published in
the United Kingdom by Parthian Books and distributed in North America by the
Independent Publishers Group.

The late Julius Chingono and John Eppel's
collection of poems and stories, ‘Together’, has been published by the University
of KwaZulu-Natal Press in South Africa and the University of New Orleans Press
in North America.

For the first time in 2012, the stories from the
Caine Prize for African Writing were available in Zimbabwe, ‘African Violet’
being co-published by New Internationalist in the United Kingdom, by ourselves
and by six other African publishers.

JM: What does your organisation really intend to
achieve?

BJ: The aim of ’amaBooks is also to have
Zimbabwe stories available to all within Zimbabwe.

Our books are on sale through many outlets in
both Bulawayo and Harare. But the economic problems over the last decade have
led to the closure of many bookshops or to them concentrating solely on texts
for schools.

To give those outside the main population
centres and those who cannot afford to buy books an opportunity to read local
stories, ’amaBooks donated more than 400 books to rural and city libraries at a
ceremony during the 2012 Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Bulawayo.

To encourage interest in local writing we have
taken an active role in literary arts at the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo
and several workshops for young
writers. We have also donated books and helped with reading clubs in the high-density
areas of Bulawayo.

So far, their publications have all been in
English, but, with the support of the Open Society Initiative for Southern
Africa, amaBooks is in the process of having ‘Where to Now? Short Stories_from
Zimbabwe’ translated into Isi Ndebele, as ‘Siqondephi Manje? lndatshana
zasezimbabwe’. The book will be published later this year.

JM: Tell us about the future?

BJ: AmaBooks will keep publishing great
Zimbabwean stories, and work hard to get those stories read by as many people
as possible in Zimbabwe and in the rest of the world.

We are also keen to have new writers come and
have their voices heard through us.

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Introduction

'amaBooks have published 36 books featuring 240 writers since we started in 2000.
For information about the books and the writers, please visit www.amabooksbyo.com.
Outside of Zimbabwe, most of the books are available through www.africanbookscollective.com or many other online outlets.
'The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician', 'This September Sun' and 'Where to Now?' are available in the UK from Parthian Books.
'This September Sun' is available in East Africa through Longhorn Press.
'The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician' is published in North America by Ohio University Press, in Nigeria and other West African countries by Kachifo (Farafina) and in Germany by Peter Hammer Verlag.
'The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician', 'This September Sun' 'Where to Now' and 'Textures' are available online through jamalon.com.

To buy a book from 'amaBooks

'amaBooks titles are available in Bulawayo at Orange Elephant, Book and Bean, Indaba Book Cafe, Natural History Museum, and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe; in Harare at the National Gallery, Blackstone Books and Avondale Bookshop; in South Africa at Clarkes (Cape Town), Bridge Books, African Flavour, Xarra and Love Books (Johannesburg).

If you are outside Africa and would like to buy a particular book through the African Books Collective, please click on the image of the book cover below.

If you would like brief information about recent books, to read extracts or to buy from an online store, click on the book2look logo below.

Otherwise, please email us at amabooksbyo@gmail.com, or find a bookshop through www.amabooksbyo.com.

amaBooks as e-books

Most 'amaBooks titles are available as e-books through ABC. Please click on the link below.

They are also available on amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and many other online stores.

This September Sun, Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe and Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township are available in the USA as e-books through Scribd. Please click on the Scribd logo below.

Moving On and other Zimbabwean stories

The Goddess of Mtwara

The Daily Assortment of Astonishing Things

Lusaka Punk

The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician

Textures

The Gonjon Pin

Small Friends

Siqondephi Manje

A Memory This Size

African Violet

Available from 'amaBooks in Zimbabwe

Where to Now?

Together

This September Sun

by Bryony Rheam

Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe

Intwasa Poetry

Silent Cry: Echoes of Young Zimbabwe Voices available outside Zimbabwe